


In the Fade

by Tseecka



Series: DARP Kisses [4]
Category: Dragon Age II
Genre: In the Fade, Kisses Meme, M/M, dreamspace
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-07
Updated: 2014-08-07
Packaged: 2018-02-12 05:04:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2096826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tseecka/pseuds/Tseecka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When everyone else seems not to have the time to listen, Anders knows he can at least rely on himself.</p>
<p>---</p>
<p>For a Tumblr RP Kissing Meme, Prompt: "Jawline Kiss"</p>
            </blockquote>





	In the Fade

The Fade always looks like this, Anders thinks despondently, casting his gaze about as he waits. It’s a strange feeling, to be waiting in the Fade, shimmering between yourself and something other, and he wonders if it is worse for him, if everyone feels this way. The world around him is grey and washed out, out of focus, like a sun-bleached painting if the sun was grey and green and gold all at once.

He breaks himself out of his thoughts, as he sees the expected figure striding down a path towards him. His steps are uneven—mincing strides that suddenly carry him a league, and then only inches, but it’s still the same amount of time as ever for the man to reach him. They stand before each other, and it’s as though he’s looking into a glass. 

He reaches out, touches golden hair tinted with just the slightest flame, touches a stubbled jaw—always stubbled, like this, as though no time has passed, and he wonders if it has—touches fingertips to fingertips and smiles as a jolt of electricity bounces back and forth between their joined hands, then outwards, crackling away into nothing in an electrical storm around them. 

"Shall we begin?" he asks himself, and his own face smiles and nods back at him. 

This has become something of a ritual for him—meeting with himself in the Fade to discuss the finer points of his manifesto, his morals, his fight for mage rights. Unlike everyone else in Anders’ life, the friends and allies who purport to stand beside him while leaving his manifesto unread and using his fight as the punchline of any number of jokes and witticisms, he is always willing to listen to himself. Having someone of similar mind—but capable of independent thought, as the spirits of the Fade are wont to be—to use as a sounding board is invaluable to him. 

True, it isn’t like the Anders of the Fade has any unique ideas of his own, but it’s a route into his subconscious self that has already proved capable of providing insight a waking Anders cannot see. If only, Anders thinks, the rest of the mages could find something to believe in so fervently, a cause so encompassing; he hasn’t the time to speak with any other Fade beings, demon or otherwise, to even be tempted. His hours in the Fade are spent with Anders alone. 

The effect of having someone to talk to, to  _really_ talk to, to listen to his theories and to support him unequivocally—even if it is just another version of himself—is unexpected but logical. For a being as starved of love and support as he is, it makes sense that he would occasionally find his eyes wandering as Anders speaks, watching the lump in his throat bob with his words and breath, seeing the smiles that split his face in a way he’s never seen his own do and smiling at them in return. The gratitude, the longing for something to even begin to rival such a partnership of minds—it is overwhelming. 

They’ve reached a new conclusion, settled on a series of next steps that show promise unlike anything they’ve managed to determine before, and Anders’ eyes are alight with hope and fear and fervent, passionate belief in their cause. It’s gratitude, and longing, that makes Anders step forward and wrap his arms around the other figure, tightly, brushing his lips to the spot where he had touched the faint growth of beard upon their initial greeting. 

He feels Anders huff a laugh at first, the novelty of the contact and the absurdity of the circumstance sending a puff of breath unnaturally warm against his ear. It turns into a light moan as he mouths kisses along the jawline, to a spot under the ear that he knows is particularly sensitive, suckling lightly. 

The world spins; a new sensation, this feeling, not knowing where he ends and where the other he begins—and then he is pushed away, and Anders is giving him a wry smile. 

"I’d better leave—before this becomes one of  _those_  dreams,” he says, and Anders is confused for a moment before he remembers which Anders he is. 


End file.
